The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-11-03
sPANIARDs IN CUBA.
How the Colonists ere Plundered and
Oppressed.
Erorn he Mem YORK; Tribune.

lCpba and her Judges is the title of an en-
+ertaining work by Raimundo Cabrera, an
Havana advocate of literary proclivities,
which should be of special interest to the
naonle of the United States for other rea-
cons than that it furnishes a vivid presenta-
ton OF the deplorable results of Spanish
,nisrule in Cuba Not very long ago Eng
iish oninion was of almost more importance
70 Americans than their opinion of them
selves. You were apt to meet Censure from
abroad in a spirit of wrathful resentment
and TO throw yourselves into spasns OF vir-
fuons rage over the paltry sneers of super
cilious visitors from the Old World. Hap
niIv. YOU have outgrown all such juvenile
wea knesses; and to-day the travelling Briton,
who leaves your shores after fortnight'S
scamper through the country and hurlS at
you token of his stupidity in volume of
concentrated prejudice and spleen, is only
well laughed at for his pains. But it is
doubtful whether, even in the worst days of
English antagonism, Americans were ever
the victims of such a savage onslaught as
that made recently on Cuba by an author
If MIdrid. The other day one Francisco
Moreno a naughty Castilian, who had car
ried his pride and his pedigree on trip
across the Atlantic, set himself down in the
shadow of the Puerta del Sol to record the
impressions of his visit to the Pearl of the
Antilles; and he has recorded them with
such absolute impartiality and such uncom-
promising candor as to set all Cuba by the
ears For the amiable Moreno was born
with smouldering hatred of everything
Cuban which burst into uncomfortable
fame the moment he began to write; and
he has consequently failed to discover that
fine sense of delicacy and that chivalrous
consideration for the feelings of others which
should govern the pen of a true hidalgo.
No word in his vocabulary is indeed too
strong to express his contempt for the rep
tile colonists. They have turned 1.-The most
beautiful country human eyes have seen"
into 1.-THE theatre of all the horrors of the
moral world" They are distinguished for
nothing but cowardice, extravaganza and
sloth The corruption of the body polite
is equaled only by the corruption of the body
social. The women are lovely, it is true,
but dreadfully naughty. The press is venal;
the streets are badly paved; the sewerage is
detective; no respect is paid to religion-and
the hotels are vile.
Aspersions such as these might we'll arouse
the ire of an Innocent people and Senior Ca
brera's ''opportune notifications, as he calls
them, are intended as a sort of patriotic
counterblast. But his tone is commercially
calm and dignifi C. He has no taste for
mere vituperation; and instead of replying
to prejudice with scurrility, he meets each
charge and deals with it squarely and fairly,
piling facts on figures and figures on facts n
a way that not only gives the lie to his ira
Queer but shows that the Spaniards them
selves have made of the island what it is-a
nest of tyrants and corruptionists, and a
stronghold of the most iniqIIitouS colonial
system in the world The visitor to Cuba
does not need to go in search of abuses; they
stare him in the face. In Havana, for in
stance, he passes through streets which re-
main rugged and unclean simply because
the city cannot pay the exorbitant duty i'm
posed by the rapacious home government
on imported paving stones He sees preten-
tious buildings which have fallen into dllap-
idation because, while over s., 900, 600 are set
aside every year for army estimates, only
81. 100000 are assigned for public works
the greater part of this finding its way into
the pockets of Spanish officials. He turns
in shame from denS of immortality, -four
ishing openly under the paid protection of
the Spanish police, and is jostled by crowds
of negroes who have been kept in bondage
until recently, in spite of the 9400, 900 which
England paid Spain in lS47 to abolish the
slave traffic, and by hordes of Cinnamon,
imported into virtual slavery in spite of the
treaty of Pekin. And wherever he bends
his steps he finds himself confronted by
vampirish and impecunious Castilians, who
have come TO Cuba to suck the blood Of the
people and depart from it gorged in the
shortest possible time
Even Poland hardly fares worse. The
enormous taxation he has to meet gives the
Cuban no right to a voice in the public adj
ministration. Every Office is closed to him
even the municipal and judicial appoint
ments forming part of the perquistes of his
masters. The central power is entirely in
their hands and local office is but delega-
ton of the central power. Until recently
the town councils, which were filed from
the Lieutenant Governors list of largest
contributors" were controlled by ignorant
and despotic military chiefs, from whose
caprice there was no appeal Though the
doodle" alderman is not unknown in Cuba
the Cuban alderman practically is: and of
the % members of the last town council of
Havana % were Spanish born. Five only
of the % deputies to the Cortes elected in
April of last year were Cuban autonomists.
Eighteen were conservatives or upholders of
the supremacy of Spain-16 of these being
Spanish born; and three only of the ID SEN
ators were autonomists, against IL constitu-
tlonallsts, 10 of whom were Spaniards. The
autonomists are almost always the repre-
sentativeS of the educated class. OF judges,
IN the true sense of the word, Cuba mas
hardly any, for there is a perfect solidarity
between all the governing classes, and the
administration OF important Judlclal dlS-
tl1cts is frequently handed over to Spanish
tavern keepers and low political adventures
as a reward for fidelity to the constitutional
party. "Ah Pacon calculates our author
lhe is writing letter to a suppositiUious
friend lin country where the administra
ton of justice is not the charge Of the State
but fat business for the State; where the
estimated revenues contain the item of
$150,000 for stamped paper, and the expend-
lures that of $475, 061 20 for outlay on ac-
count of the judiciary, leaving q spending
balance of S274, 93S so, what else can justice
mean, in general and particular, in whole
and in detail, than jobbery, jobbery, job
berry,"
The dense ignorance of the masses is,
alas, undeniable; but who can blame them
for it, when Spain has Intentionally and
systematically opposed the opening of
schools, on the theory that they are hot
bed of liberal ideas and the direct cause of
revolutionary movements-when, according
20 De Araistsgui's famous pronouncement OF
1911, 1t has been found necessary to main
tain the Cubans in Grass ignorance, lin order
TO Hispanicize themW Yet, with all their
lack Of education they are not so prone to
vice as their more fortunate rulers. Sta
tlstics published in the "Gaceta de Madrid'h
snow that by far the greater number of the
c lmlnals convicted on the island were born
abroad, and that while the proportion to the
native whites is as l to an and 10 the ma
1--WE negroes as l to 905, the proportion to
ncomers from Spain is as l to 233. The
progress of the islanders in letters, arts,